During the regular season, Palisades handed Northwestern one of it two losses on the season in a 2-0 game. For a while, it looked like that same scenario might play out in the Colonial League semifinal game between the two teams, but Northwestern came raging back, only to fall to Palisades 3-2 on penalty kicks Tuesday at Salisbury High School.

Palisades got its second goal of the night with 15:35 left in the first half when Kylie Schmidt challenged goalie Lauren Terrell and put a shot just out of Terrell’s reach to make it a 2-0 game.

The Lady Pirates had grabbed a 1-0 lead on a shot and follow-up by Melissa Koch when Terrell made a nice play on Koch’s first shot only to have the ball trickle just far enough away from her to give Koch a second opportunity that she put into the net.

Northwestern head coach Kelly Bleam blamed some defensive miscues for the early struggles, but her players showed no quit as they battled from behind late in the first half.

Olivia Motolese fired a shot from 30-yards out and Maggie Motolese made a slight deflection on the shot to put it past goalie Trinity Williams to make it 2-1 with just 41 seconds left on the clock in the first half.

The energy that Motolese’s goal stirred up late in the first half continued into the second half when she fired a 25-yarder of her own to tie the game with 34:55 left in regulation.

Northwestern dominated play over the final 40 minutes of regulation and didn’t allow Palisades to get a shot on goal until there was just 4:05 left in regulation.

Terrell made a nice stop on a shot by Koch that seemed destined for the back of the net. Northwestern also stymied a Palisades corner with just 45 seconds remaining in the second half and then with just 20 ticks left, Bailey Groff put a shot on goal that went just wide right as Northwestern looked to wrap up the win.

“That was a huge goal for us to get some momentum and some spirit going into halftime,” said Bleam. “I thought we had the better of the play in the second half, we had so many opportunities. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to put any of them away.”

The two teams went up and down the field in the first overtime period with neither team really flexing its muscles. In the second overtime, it looked like Northwestern would pick up the win, but the Tigers again had trouble finishing opportunities.

Sara Hathaway put a shot wide right and late in the second overtime, put one wide left. In between those two, Maggie Motolese put a direct kick over the crossbar with 1:25 left in overtime.

Palisades played a much more physical style of play than did Northwestern, especially in the two overtime periods.

“Palisades is known to be a physical, very hard-hitting team, so we expected that from them,” explained Bleam.

In the penalty kicks, Palisades went up 2-0 before Groff made it 2-1 with a shot to Williams’ left. Sydney Steere made it 3-1 in favor of Palisades before Williams made a diving stop on a shot by Kayla Bardonner to keep it 3-1. Emma Smeland came up for the Pirates with a chance to clinch the game and was able to put a shot past Terrell for the game-winner.

Palisades will now play Southern Lehigh in the league championship, with the Spartans looking for their fourth straight league title. Southern Lehigh, the fourth-seed in the tournament, knocked off top-seeded Saucon Valley 1-0 in the other semifinal game to return to the finals.

“We made some early mistakes defensively, something that we’ve been working on all season to fix,” said Bleam. “I think we might have fixed it now, unfortunately, too late.”

While the fixes may have come too late for the Colonial League playoffs, Northwestern will be able to put them to good use in the District 11 tournament, which begins next week. Exactly when and where the Tigers will open district play and who their opponent will be is still to be determined.